Hillsboro Indians fall in final seconds to Western Brown 

MT. ORAB — The belief in sports that every second counts never rang more true than it did in the 2024 season opener for the Hillsboro Indians.

With 4:02 remaining in the fourth quarter Friday night against the Western Brown Broncos, the Indians regained a four-point advantage against the host Broncos off an 80-yard touchdown run by Dom Smart and PAT from Wesley Bailey.

That ended up being too much time left on the clock for the home team at Kibler Stadium, because the Broncos used all but two seconds of that time to score the game-winning touchdown, going 81 yards on 17 plays to defeat the Indians 42-39, giving the Broncos five consecutive wins against Hillsboro.

“That one hurt … that one hurt,” HHS head coach Nathan Horne said. “We kind of thought it might come down to the team that had the ball last. You hate to score a lot quickly, which, you know, you're not going to tell a kid not to score. We had some miscues on special teams and things, and that hurt us.

“I thought the kids played hard. We didn’t put it in down when we're in the red zone, and we try to kick a field goal, but, you know, they (WBHS) don't muff the punt, we don't get that opportunity, but we needed to capitalize, and we didn't get that done.”

As exciting, but heartbreaking, as the final moments of the game were for the Indians, both teams put on a show offensively to open the season for all four quarters, with a 14-13 score at the end of the first quarter in favor of WBHS, followed by a halftime score of 25-14 with the Indians in the lead. Even when the third quarter came to a close, it was the Indians leading 32-27 as the two teams combined for 59 points after three quarters.

In all, the two teams combined for 81 points and 989 yards of total offense, with Western Brown having 578 yards and the Indians collecting 411 yards.

The Indians had Smart finish with 10 carries for 105 yards and one touchdown, while Jeven Hochstuhl totaled six carries for 87 yards and two rushing scores, and he had one reception for 94 yards for a touchdown.

HHS also saw Ryan Burns total three carries for 52 yards and one touchdown, while quarterback Mason Dumpert rushed the ball seven times for 51 yards and one touchdown, plus Dumpert was 1-of-2 passing for 94 yards and one TD pass. Tre Captain for the Indians totaled three rushes for 22 yards.

“Our offense was clicking for the most part,” Horne said. “A couple drives sputtered, here and there, but we had some big plays today. We spread the ball around. Jeven had a good run. Dom had a good run, and Ryan Burns had a good run. Mason had a good run. We had all kinds of kids break long runs to score for us. I’m proud of the kids and proud of how they worked. That’s part of life, I guess. It doesn’t always turn out to be the way you like it to.”

The Indians were first to strike with a touchdown on their first drive of the season, starting with a 20-yard rush by Hochstuhl, then a run of four yards by Burns and a 21-yard rush to the outside by Captain for a first down, taking the ball to the WB 15-yard line. From there, Dumpert raced five yards, and on second down, it was Hochstuhl racing 10 yards to the end zone for six points with 10:27 left in the first quarter. The PAT was no good, leaving HHS ahead 6-0.

The Broncos responded with a touchdown on their first drive of the season, building a 74-yard drive highlighted with a 16-yard run by quarterback Brady Sutton, followed by a 13-yard pass by Sutton to Justin Morgan for a first down. Later in the 14-play drive, Sutton found Brayden Harmon with an 11-yard pass, putting the ball on the Indians’ 22-yard line.

On third down, the Broncos used a screen pass from Sutton to Lucas Powell for a 15-yard gain, and two plays later they reached the end zone with a six-yard touchdown pass from Sutton to Tye Spaulding with 5:28 left in the first. The PAT was made by Camdyn Cunningham for a 7-6 Broncos lead.

The Indians overcame an onside kick attempt by the Broncos, starting their second drive of the ’24 season on the WBHS 49-yard line, and the Indians didn’t let the excellent field position go unused. Taking only two plays, the Indians were right back in the end zone as Burns had a 49-yard touchdown run, racing through and past the defense with 4:46 left on the first-quarter clock. The PAT was converted by Wesley Bailey, giving the Indians a 13-7 lead.

Again, the Broncos had the answer to take back the lead, as this time it was a 13-play drive for 63 yards, ending with a 3-yard run by Sutton on second-and-goal for the touchdown with .28 seconds left in the opening quarter. The Broncos made the PAT for a 14-13 lead.

HHS was flagged twice before the kickoff could be made, allowing the Broncos to kick off from the 50-yard line and putting the Indians on their own 16-yard line. Though HHS was eventually forced to punt, the punt itself was executed perfectly by Nic Burns, landing around the 10-yard line then rolling to the 2-yard line of WBHS, putting them back in their own territory with 9:53 left in the second.

As solid as the punt was by Burns, the Broncos offense overcame the field position they were given, as a third-and-5 play on their own 9-yard line ended with WBHS standing on the 40-yard line of HHS when Sutton of the Broncos found Powell for a 51-yard reception, with Powell racing down the sideline for a first down. There was a 16-yard rush by Sutton that followed, but then it was Hillsboro’s defense stepping up in a big way.

Hillsboro’s Jaiden Captain intercepted a Sutton pass on third down at around the 20-yard line of the Indians, and eventually was stopped after racing to the Broncos’ 21-yard line with 6:49 left in the second quarter.

Two plays later the Indians were back in the lead after a 23-yard run by Hochstuhl for a touchdown with 6:07 remaining in the quarter. The PAT was no good, leaving the Indians in the lead by five points at 19-14.

The ensuing drive for the Broncos ended with a second Indians interception on defense with Shawn Hottinger gaining the interception at the Indians’ 5-yard line with 3:10 left in the second.

The biggest play of the game for the HHS offense happened three plays later on third-and-9 from their own 6-yard line with a long pass from Dumpert to fellow junior Hochstuhl resulting in a 94-yard touchdown with 1:28 left in the first for a 25-14 lead that stood once halftime arrived.

In the second half, the Broncos had a repeat of what they did last season, and that was going from focusing on the pass to using their rush offense to get back into the game.

The first drive of the third quarter started with 12:00 on the clock, and 15 plays later — most of the plays rushes — the Broncos chipped away at the HHS defense with no play going longer than 16 yards. The Broncos ended the drive with a 3-yard run by Morgan for a touchdown with 5:50 left in the third. A made PAT cut the Indians’ lead down to four points at 25-21.

The Indians responded with a four-play drive where they reached pay dirt as Dumpert raced for a 39-yard touchdown run on a QB keeper with 4:08 on the third-quarter clock, increasing the Hillsboro lead to 32-21.

The 11-point lead didn’t last long because 13 plays later, with .31 seconds left in the third, it was a screen pass by Sutton to Spaulding that resulted in six points, cutting the HHS lead to 32-27.

Hillsboro’s special teams made a big play on a punt with 9:38 left in the fourth with Ryan Burns forcing a fumble on the punt return, which was recovered by HHS teammate Zack Brown on the WBHS 10-yard line.

HHS went for a 13-yard field goal with 7:59 left in the final quarter, but the Broncos broke through HHS players as Denver Ballou blocked the punt for Western Brown.

The scoring wasn’t finished for either team, as WBHS built a 10-play drive which ended with a 32-yard touchdown run by Morgan, breaking tackles and powering his way to the end zone with 4:15 left in regulation. The made PAT put the Broncos back in front with a 35-32 lead.

It took the Indians only one play to regain the lead, which was the 80-yard run by Smart at the 4:02 mark. Bailey’s PAT was good, leaving the Indians ahead 39-35.

Then came Western Brown’s final drive, and again, they chipped away at the HHS defense with a mix of runs and a couple passes, but all the short-yardage gains, and the few passes, left the Broncos with a third-and-10 play with six seconds left on the clock at the HHS 11-yard line.

The play that came was an 11-yard pass from Sutton to Harmon, who was just standing in the end zone, making the clutch catch with two seconds left in the game. The eventual converted PAT put the Broncos ahead by the final score of 42-39.

HHS (0-1) will be on the road for Week 2 on Friday, Aug. 31, as they are scheduled to face the Goshen Warriors at 7 p.m. GHS (0-1) lost their season opener on Friday to Monroe by a 35-0 score.

WBHS (1-0) is scheduled for a Week 2 game on the road at the Washington Blue Lions (0-1). Washington lost their Week 1 game to London 51-6 at LHS.

GAME NOTES: Defensive stats for the Indians included: Ryan Burns with 20 total tackles (10 unassisted) and a caused fumble … Collin Swackhammer finished with 20 total tackles (13 unassisted) … Dumpert totaled eight total tackles (five unassisted) … JaHari Pitts totaled eight tackles (five unassisted) … Hochstuhl had eight total tackles (all unassisted) … Ian Fenner had six total tackles (three unassisted) … Jordan Lowe had five total tackles (three unassisted) … John Deans had five total tackles (two unassisted) … Landon Jordan had four total tackles (one unassisted) … Zack Brown had four total tackles (two unassisted) … Jaiden Captain finished with four total tackles (three unassisted) … Tre Captain had four unassisted tackles … Shawn Hottinger had four unassisted tackles… Kaiden Robbins had two unassisted tackles… Michael Burns had two unassisted tackles.

BOX SCORE
HHS    13 12 07 07 — 39
WBHS    14 00 13 15 — 42

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